From the article: >Users aren't stupid. So don't act like they are. A already setup Linux machine is in fact more usable than a random Windows machine. I sta

From the article: >Users aren't stupid. So don't act like they are. A already setup Linux machine is in fact more usable than a random Windows machine. I started using Linux when I was 13 and I hardly knew anything about computers except playing games and using a browser. I was impressed by the functionality and elegance of the KDE desktop that the then popular Knoppix CD provided. There were a lot of cool stuff you could do without much hassle (except playing games) more accessibly than Windows and it got me hooked. Also there weren't viruses and anti-virus software so I felt I could safely mess around and install stuff. My younger sister (she was in the first grade) also enjoyed drawing on the computer and my mom didn't mind using Mozilla to use the Web. Even a 5-10 years ago Linux was very usable and stable. Hardware support was I guess spottier but if someone gave you a configured system you would enjoy it. Thats why I think vendors should concentrate on improving and polishing existing releases, proving support for many applications. It would be very good if RedHat started supporting desktop machines for the retail market, maybe using resellers to protect the RedHat brand. I wish CentOS had the same huge Desktop community like Ubuntu does. Regular users don't have to endure the growing pains of Linux. Also I hope appliances running on a virtual machine like Xen would spread. Virtualisation is the true path to reliability and IBM for example figured that out back in the seventies. The desktop Linux should not try to emulate windows machines but turn-key IBM ones. We have the processing power, the memory and the storage to do it so why not?